Spencer Durrant

3 days ago | flylordsmag.com | Spencer Durrant

On an old episode of The American Sportsman, Lee Wulff and Curt Gowdy flew up to Labrador and fished the Minipi River for giant brook trout. The whole episode is an absolute gem (and worth watching just to see Wulff tie a fly without a vise), but there’s one line that Gowdy says that’s stuck in my mind since I first watched this episode a few years ago. I can’t remember it word-for-word, but Gowdy says that all anglers go through an evolution of sorts.

1 week ago | flylordsmag.com | Spencer Durrant

A few weeks ago, I was out fishing with two friends when we got into a great blue-winged olive hatch. There were bugs everywhere, the fish were going nuts, and I remember thinking something to the effect of, this will be an easy day. Four hours later, I hadn’t caught a fish. No one else had, either, but I was having a hard time not taking it personally. I’d switched fly patterns out a half-dozen times, lengthened my leader, and tried every dry-emerger combination I could think of.

1 week ago | flylordsmag.com | Spencer Durrant

Filson is a name that hardly needs introducing in the outdoors gear space. They’ve consistently made fantastic apparel and outerwear for years, and their tin cloth hats have been worn by a few famous anglers. They recently partnered with Housefly Fishing, a shop based in Hawley, Pennsylvania, to produce a lineup of new gear tailored for fly anglers. This gear collaboration includes a hip pack, rain poncho, hat, and a few shirts.

1 week ago | flylordsmag.com | Spencer Durrant

The creek usually fishes well before runoff, but that window of time varies year to year. Last year I had two weeks of good fishing before snowmelt turned the creek into a raging torrent. I spent most of June on tailwaters, waiting for the freestones to come back into shape. This year, even with an average winter, the creek is in fantastic shape. The water is low and clear, the bugs are hatching, and the fish have moved from their winter runs into the riffles and pockets.

2 weeks ago | flylordsmag.com | Spencer Durrant

A draft of a four-year plan for the Department of the Interior’s objectives for “prosperity, security, and recreation” has been leaked online. This leaked road map outlines shocking policy objectives that could have serious implications for anyone who recreates on public land, especially in the West.